July 5-7, 2006: Visions of Jewish Education Seminar for Modern Orthodox Day Schools
During the 2005-2006 academic year, five Modern Orthodox day schools in North America began participating in a series of on-site workshops and study sessions on Visions of Jewish Education. This is part of the VJEP’s ongoing work with the Modern Orthodox educational community (to read more see below, “Discussion Evening with Prof. Chaim Waxman,” and Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, Spiritualizing Halakhic Education on our Publications page). Recently, VJEP staff (led by Dr. Daniel Marom, Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, and Jennifer Lewis) ran a seminar for participants in these workshops. Each school sent a delegation of educators - led by their principals - to New York for an immersion experience and workshop on developing and implementing school vision. The three days combined learning and work sessions, in which each school met with a VJEP facilitator to make applications to their own practice and begin planning school-based vision initiatives. The Schools participating in this seminar are: the Ida Crown Jewish Academy (Chicago), Yeshiva Atlanta, MTA-Yeshiva University High School for Boys (New York), Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School (Baltimore), and the SAR High School (Riverdale, NY), which hosted the program.
June 29, 2006: Discussion Evening with Prof. Chaim Waxman
A group of educators, rabbis and researchers met with Professor Chaim Waxman to discuss his paper, "The Role and Authority of the Rabbi in American Society," which deals with the American Rabbinate. The group worked on drawing out the implications of Waxman’s work for educators (including, but not limited to, congregational rabbis).
Prof. Waxman is professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers University in NJ and currently a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem. A list of his publications can be viewed here.
May 21-24, 2006: MTEI-Mandel Jerusalem Fellows Alumni Program
A select group of graduates from two programs - the Mandel Teacher Educator Initiative and the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows - recently gathered to continue their study of Visions of Jewish Education. These educators, who come from settings ranging from early childhood to adult education, and from day schools to JCCs, are moving into the second stage of their work with visions. In this stage they are beginning to think about how to bring vision into their workplaces. Each seminar participant will undertake an individual project designed to use—and expand—the concept of educational vision.
At this meeting of the seminar, participants studied tefillah (prayer) as an example of a problem in practice that can be addressed through educational vision. Daniel Marom led a session about his work on this subject with the Magnes School, as reported in Visions of Jewish Education. Participants also studied the Milat Ha-Shavua (Word of the Week) program as an example of a vision-guided project, and undertook group consultations about their own proposed projects.
December 1, 2004: JCC Association’s Lekhu Lakhem AVI CHAI-Mandel Senior Fellows Seminar
James Hyman spoke at a seminar for directors of JCC resident camps across North America who have been chosen to explore Judaism, Jewish education and camp leadership through text study. The seminar, the first of six, took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The focus of the session led by Hyman was Michael Rosenak’s paper "Finding the Language for Jewish Teaching."
November 18, 2004: A Conversation with Visionary Educators
The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education presented a
Conversation with Visionary Educators : Daniel Lehmann, Deborah Meier, Theodore Sizer and Sharon Feiman-Nemser.
November 17-18, 2004: The Association of Directors of Central Agencies
James Hyman led a session, "Toward Vision of Jewish Education," at the Visions and Educational Practices of Central Agencies meeting in Cleveland. The session focused on the study of Moshe Greenberg's conception.
October 11-12, 2004: PEJE Leadership Assembly
James Hyman spoke on vision at the 2004 PEJE (Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education) Leadership Assembly. The conference, "Portraits of Excellence: Leading the Day School Movement with Vision, Passion, and Influence," took place in Boston. To read James Hyman's presentation, click here
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August 15-19, 2004: CAJE Conference
Seymour Fox delivered the keynote address at the 29th Annual Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE). Click here
to read Jack Beiler's response to Fox's presentation. Michael Rosenak, Daniel Marom, Barry Holtz and James Hyman also spoke at the conference. Marom's paper, "What Makes Early Childhood Jewish Education Excellent?" is available here. CAJE has also published video excerpts from his presentation on their website.
June 23-25, 2004: PEJE Arts Network Retreat
Daniel Marom led a session on the role of the arts in alternative visions of Jewish education. Using texts from Mordecai Kaplan and Martin Buber, his workshop asked what, if anything, visions have to say about the arts in education.
June 6-8, 2004: Network for Research on Jewish Education Conference
In a spotlight session at the annual conference of the Network for Research on Jewish Education at Baltimore Hebrew University, panelists Sharon Feiman-Nemser (Brandeis University), Barry Holtz (The Jewish Theological Seminary of America), Jon Levisohn (Brandeis) and Bethamie Horowitz (the Mandel Foundation) addressed Visions of Jewish Education from the perspective of their areas of research.
Winter/Spring Term, 2004: Visions of Jewish Education Project at the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows Program
The Education Department of the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem has brought Visions of Jewish Education into its curriculum. Seymour Fox, Daniel Marom, Michael Rosenak, Menachem Brinker, and Moshe Greenberg have given sessions on chapters and ideas in the book to the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows.
December 21, 2003: Association for Jewish Studies Conference
A special session at the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) Conference in Boston addressed the topic, "What do Jewish Scholars and Jewish Educators Have to Speak About?" Barry Holtz chaired the panel, which included Seymour Fox on "The Role of Jewish Scholarship in the Development of Vision in Jewish Education" and Daniel Marom on "The Role of Jewish Studies Scholars in Early Zionist Education." David Ellenson responded to the presentations in terms of the relevance for Jewish studies scholars in America; his response is available here. Click here to listen to an audio recording of the session (running time: 1 hour).
December 18, 2003: Tufts University Seminar
VJEP staff participated in "Defining Excellence in Jewish Early Childhood Education," part of a collaboration between the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) and The Center for Applied Child Development at Tufts.
This group is building an instrument for the design and accreditation of Jewish early childhood education programs. They wanted to understand from the outset of their work how the Jewish aspect of early childhood education programs defines not only the content but also the method and pedagogy of those programs. They read selections from Visions of Jewish Education and studied Isadore Twersky's paper in detail.
December 15, 2003: Mandel Jerusalem Fellows' Graduate Forum
Visions of Jewish Education and the VJEP were presented to the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows' Graduate Forum in Toronto. The session focused on making the book and the project a resource for Fellows' graduates working in the field.
December 11, 2003: The Jewish Education Center of Cleveland and The Laura and Alvin Siegal College of Judaic Studies
The VJEP staff was invited to present a session in which participants studied Isadore Twersky's conception as a means of understanding the project's definition of education, and discussed it in light of their work in Jewish education.
December 7-9, 2003: The Mandel Teacher Education Institute Graduates Seminar
The Mandel Teacher Education Institute (MTEI) invited the VJEP staff to participate in the MTEI Graduates Seminar in Chicago. The seminar was devoted to studying Visions of Jewish Education and its implications for teacher education in Jewish schools and for the work of boards of Jewish education in North America. Participants focused on Isadore Twersky's vision in depth, emphasizing its implications for teaching and learning.
November 3, 2003: The Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education
Barry Holtz presented a session on Visions of Jewish Education at The Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) Grantees Seminar in Boston. The book's ideas were considered in terms of their implications for educational reform in day schools.
Academic Year 2002-2003: Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions
Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions (ATID): ATID is a Jerusalem-based training program for junior educational leaders in the Modern Orthodox community. In 2002-2003, ATID explored Twersky’s vision of Jewish education with cohorts of ATID fellows in Israel and day school educators in the Diaspora.